The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-05-15
DONALD'S WIFE.

When Donald McKeon married his
ward Jessie Summer, many of his
friends said he had made mistake.
She was merry, laughing girl of ID,
fresh from school, and he. her fathers
old friend, quiet, self contained man
OF 50, and it can scarcely be wondered at
that many wise heads were shaken over
the ill-sorted match.
Jessie had always stood little in awe
of the quiet, stern man who had been a
frequent visitor at her fathers house
during his life time.
But she was quite unproyided for,
and Donald Mcneon was wealthy; and
when he asked her to be his wife IN
matter-of-fact way, very much as he
might have asked her 10 be his house
keeper, it seemed the easiest way to
solve the troublesome problem OF her
life; and, besides this, she knew her
father to have been under obligations
to him, and more than suspected that
the three years she had spent at fash
ionable school since her fathers death
had been at his expense.
And SO they were married, and he
took her to his old home, that his
family had owned and occupied for gen.
erations.
1t never occurred to him that it was a
dreary sort of life for a girl like JESSIE
alone in that gloomy old house all day.
| with only the servants and the ghosts of
by-gone generations for company.
| And when she grew pale and listless,
and lost her old elasticity of spirits, a
fear that had haunted him since his
wedding day took possession of him
and poisoned his life-a fear that she
had married him for home and posi-
| ton, and already regretted her choice.
Gladly would be have given her back
her liberty had that been possible. But
| being sensitive, undemonstrative man,
! he let her see nothing of this, but rather
| shrank from her because of the wrong
he had done her, and came and went
and made no sign.
And then people began to discover
| that Mrs. McKeon was q very charming
woman, and her husband wealthy ana
| influential man, and invitations began
| to pour in upon her.
| And Jessie plunged into this new life
of fashionable dissipation with zeal
that was the natural reaction from the
gloom and the loneliness OF the past
year.
At first her husband accompanied her
wherever she went, for he had some
what old fashioned notions as to what
was right aud fitting for women to do.
But it was life be utterly dstested.
| 1t interfered with his business, and he
looked below the surface and saw the
hollow falshood it was, after all, aud it
grated on his fine ideas Of truth and
sincerity.
| Perhaps he was somewhat dictatorial
in his manner OF telling her this; per
haps she imagined SO. But when he
urged the point, she rebelled against his
assumption of authority.
1t was their first quarrel and their
last. but it was very bitter one.
She spoke cruel singing words, that
ranked and stung him the more that he
had learned to love her so dearly, as
only reserved, self-constrained men such
az he can love, and then only when
they hoard all the treasures of their ma
ture to lavish it III middle Life on the
woman who is their fate.
After that he opposed her in nothing.
had risen between them.
He devoted himself to business and
she became the acknowledged leader of
the most exclusive circle of the city.
She was madly extravaganza. She
made the old house marvel ofsesthstic
beauty, and entertained like princess
Mrs. Mckeon's toilets, jewels and din
ners became the models of her set.
Men worshipped her beauty; but for
all their batteries she had the same
smile of cold contempt, and no man was
bold enough to venture beyond the
most commonplace.
And so the years passed, and each
one drifted them further apart until
they seldom met, except at their own
grand entertainments. Each year she
became more the slave of fashion, and
he of his Office. But through it all he
loved her with an undying love, and
his one thought was to crafty her
every within.
And when the dark days came-when
ships that we've sent out freighted with
costly wares went down, and we're
heard of no more when houses that
seemed stable as granite failed, and his
wealth seemed melting away like a
snowy wreath, his only thought WAS for
her, and though each day his hair grew
whittier and his form grew more stopped
with bending over the long columns OF
figures in which the balance Was al
ways on the wrong side. he whispered,
For her sake" and struggled ON and
denied her nothing. .gtaGc Hs
And even on the day when he came
home, and knowing that all his efforts
had awaited him nothing, and that he
was a poor man, his only thought was
for her, that he would never more be
able to give her the things she had bar
tered so much for. lE5
He went in the grand old library,
that was almost the only room in the |
house which remained unchanged, and |
tried to collect his thoughts. How
could he tell ner. was the question that |
itself through his brain, and !
for the first time in his life Donald Nc |
Keen was coward.
The thought came to him of how ske
who had chaffed at her bonds when
they were gilded, would bear the chosen
relations that Strengthened income
would entail.